New Delhi [India]: With Congress ramping up its attack against the central government over inflation and GST among other issues, party leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday made a sharp attack on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her handling of the Indian economy.
In a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Delhi, Gandhi said that he did not think that the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has “any understanding of what is happing in the country”. Workers and leaders of the Congress today congregated at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here as part of a planned nationwide protest against inflation, hike in GST on essential items and unemployment.
Addressing a press conference before he joined MPs in a dharna outside Parliament, Gandhi said: “I think the macroeconomic fundamentals that she (Nirmala Sitharaman) is talking about is something else. I don’t think the Finance Minister has any understanding of what is going on in the economy of India, zero understanding. She is there as a mouthpiece.”
The Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad also lashed out at the Centre for keeping government machineries “under control”.
“Not every institution in India is free and fair today. We are not fighting just one political party, we are fighting against the entire infrastructure of India,” Rahul Gandhi said.
“When we had a government (at the Centre), the infrastructure was fair. We didn’t control infrastructure. Back then, there used to be a fight between political parties only,” he said.
He added, “At present, the entire financial infrastructure is with them. If anyone wants to support the other party, then ED, CBI is imposed against him.”
Gandhi also compared PM Modi with Hitler. “Hitler had also won elections, he too used to win elections. How did he use to do it? He had control of all of Germany’s institutions…Give me the entire system, then I will show you how elections are won,” Rahul Gandhi said.
He further said, “We’re witnessing the death of democracy. What India has built brick by brick, starting almost a century ago, is being destroyed in front of your eyes. Anybody who stands against this idea of the onset of dictatorship is viciously attacked, jailed, arrested and beaten up.”
Congress party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and MP Mallikarjun Kharge among others on Friday chose to sport black-coloured outfits.
Lashing out at the Centre on its stand on issues like price rise and inflation, Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that India is witnessing the death of democracy.
